Cycling the world (Days 1418-1426) Bulgaria: Home to the world’s heaviest something…

Over the River Danube for one last time and making our way towards the world’s heaviest something? Abandoned roads, the perfect day, and a new number 2 wild camp for the Top 10. Mountains, forests and wildflowers a plenty.

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Day 1418: https://www.debsandtom.com/blog/day-1418
Day 1420: https://www.debsandtom.com/blog/day-1420
Day 1423: https://www.debsandtom.com/blog/day-1423

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Hey welcome to Bulgaria folks, we’re back, 
and this time for a decent amount of time   so we should get a good video out of 
it, but uh, Bulgaria Debs let’s go. There we are Debs that might be 
the last time we see the Danube. Now we’re in Bulgaria folks we’re turning south, 
so there goes the Danube, might not see it again,   maybe we’ll catch a glimpse as we go up the 
hills but, been interesting nice and flat,   followed it a long way all the way since Germany 
but now time for some mountains let’s go. Hey so, we’ve seen on this trip so far quite 
a lot of Guinness World Records the biggest,   smallest, oldest, all this kind of stuff, 
and we’re heading into the mountains of   Bulgaria to see what I’m reliably informed 
is the heaviest of something in the world. I’m not going to tell you what it is yet 
you’ll have to keep watching to find out but,   from the pictures I’m very excited to see it,   the heaviest thing in the world of this 
particular thing, so let’s go and have a look. Just to prove that cycle touring isn’t fun every 
day today has just been [ ___ ] like busy road   all day, lorries, headwind, up and down, just 
a grind, nothing really to see, so there we go,   but tomorrow we get to see the heaviest thing in 
the world and that we’re excited about eh Debs? We are, and we’re so excited we’ve 
got to climb miles to get there. Hey morning peeps, well we’re on our way to see 
the heaviest of this type of thing. It’s about   15 mile away and I think I’ve just seen it, 
you’re never going to make it out on GoPro,   but apparently it’s so big you can 
see it from up to 19 miles away,   and up on the horizon there I think I might have 
spotted it, but let’s get a bit closer for you. So to get to this thing we’ve got 
to climb up a 1,400 ft hill and   obviously go down again on the 
other side, and here it comes,   we’re going to leave the main road 
and climb up this git massive hill. Here we go Debs. There’s a clue, there’s 
the town below this monument, Shumen. And this is where the fun really 
starts tarmac, dirt, hills, let’s go. Zdrasti zdrasti (Hello), Zdrasti (Hello). Yeah monument Bulgaria?
yeah, yeah, thank you. What an approach we’ve got to this 
thing, beautiful abandoned road,   beautiful tree covered hills. What a day. What a turnaround eh, from 
yesterday’s grimness to about as good as it gets. Well that’s where we’ve come from, the abandoned 
road, we’ve joined a non-abandoned road and we’re   nearly at the top I think you can kind of see 
where the hill finishes, so let’s keep going. Getting close now folks shouldn’t 
be too much longer before we see   it. It’s been a long long way, 
maybe this corner, I don’t know? Not yet. Ha ha. Not yet. Maybe this corner, I don’t know? No not yet. Come on, where are you? Maybe this corner, third time lucky? Come on. I don’t think so, there’s something at 
the end but it might just be conifers. Now maybe this corner? This corner 
looks like there might be a car   park and facilities so maybe it’s 
the visitors car park. Let’s see. Well it’s not the heaviest observatory 
in the world that’s for sure,   so it’s not that, let’s keep going. Hey hey, and here we are folks. So what this 
is it’s the heaviest, supposedly the heaviest,   Soviet style monument in the world and it’s ‘The 
Founders of the Bulgarian State’ I think it is,   and it celebrates 3,000 years of Bulgarian 
history and we’ve bloody made it,   there we are, look at this size of this beast. I tell you what,I’m not exaggerating when I 
say that was one of the most amazing things   I’ve ever seen, I mean that’s just to my 
taste architecturally, and it was stunning,   just beautiful, brutal, and a load of meaning 
behind it which we haven’t really researched yet,   so let’s go down to the city and 
find somewhere to spend the night. And there, don’t know whether you 
can make it out on the hillside,   you should be able to cuz it’s still bloody 
massive, look at that for a monument,   what a monument, even comes out on 
the GoPro and that’s saying something. Hey so we’re leaving Shumen folks and I thought 
we’d get you a nice view of the monument but,   no just a view of the mist. I’ll put a photo 
up from yesterday though cuz it looks almost   as good from down here as it did up top, but 
for now we’re heading to the proper mountains,   got a 2,000 footer today and a couple 
of other little ones too, so let’s go. Well we’ve started this 2,000 ft climb and 
it’s a first gear grinder already Debs,   how you doing, how’s it looking on the Garmin? We’re at the beginning. And is there lots 
of red and orange? There is. Oh yeah,   it’s going to be a big one, and it’s 
hot. And it might be shut halfway up.   Yeah it’s a very great lack of cars 
and lots of red closed road signs,   but we believe we can get through. 
We believe Debs. We have the faith. Well so far so good, second abandoned 
road in as many days, so peaceful,   we love this stuff. I’ll eat me words 
if we get up there and there’s a bloody   landslip or something blocking the 
path, but for now, it’s pretty nice. Well it’s 2,000 ft in 6 and 1/2 miles, and 
we’ve done a mile and done a few hundred feet. Hey hey,   well Debs the fact we’re not pedalling 
I think we’ve done it, we’re at the top. Yes, I’m hoping not to pedal for another 10 
miles. 10 miles, downhill, let’s have it! And there marks the end of our off-road 
adventure over the 2,000 ft mountain. We’ve got some proper tarmac again now look at 
that, but only for a little bit because we’re   going off-road again to a road that Komoot says 
is closed, whereas Komoot said that one was open. So I’ve just been up there to check out 
the campsite, potential wild campsite   we’re looking for Debs. Any good? I think I 
might have found a Top 10. Oh! Just wait till   you see this Debs. Up there, follow 
me folks, let’s go and have a look. Now what about that for a view eh? Hey Debs, well I tell you what, if that’s 
not a top 10 wild camp I don’t know what is,   I know we have to wait till morning in case. 
Wait till morning. But we’ve got sunset,   we’ve got enough breeze to keep the bugs 
off, we’ve got flowers everywhere, we’ve   got thyme all through the flowers so every time 
you move and tread on it it just smells gorgeous.   Just fantastic. And there’s nobody about, I 
can’t even see a house from where I’m sat. Well, a long way off. Yeah but I’m 
not looking that way. Long way off. Well last night this campsite was 
definitely a strong contender for top 10. Has it made it, what’s the morning like 
and how did we sleep through the night? Let’s go discover the world. Ooh, that’s looking a bit 
misty, not sure about this. Well it’s warmer than I thought. It felt 
cooler in the tent but Tom says the sun   has literally just peeked through. There he 
is. Coffee’s on. Here comes the sun. Yay. It could actually be more atmospheric. Very very misty. I was going for not making top 10 
a few minutes ago but, I’m having second thoughts. So one of the big problems of 
these new plastic tops on bottles,   is the fact that sometimes the 
plastic goes inside the bottle. I’ve come up with an ingenious solution using   the Aeropress to filter it so 
we don’t drink micro-plastic. And we always try and have some muesli 
with some fruit. Just banana in there   for Tom this morning, but he’s 
going to eat the apple later. So what do we do for milk? Well we usually 
try and find a little tub of UHT milk but,   no go today, or yesterday, so we got some of this. It’s a vanilla flavoured drink, Alpro 
so it’s probably some, oh it’s soya,   yeah of course it’s soya milk, 
and Tom thumbs up, thumbs down? Hey what about it Deb’s second coffee and look 
what’s happening. Yes, yes. Sun’s a coming up.  Sun’s a coming up. Might dry 
the tent out a little bit. Yeah you see I think, it needed 
to be misty because we’re not in   a rush and it encourages us to sit and take time. Perfect, everything’s perfect about this 
place. I’m saying it goes in at number two. Well definitely not number 
one, obviously. Doe Castle,   number one, that’s going to take some 
beating, but, this is pretty nice. Never has squashing up the tent 
been so nice, it smells of thyme,   it’s just beautiful. Oh if only 
you could have smelly-vision. Actually I think most of the time 
they wouldn’t want smelly-vision. Well Debs, we’re right for setting off, 
there’s our tent, bit of flattened grass,   hopefully those beautiful flowers will come back. Butterflies are out now. I don’t 
know Debs I reckon that knocks   off the Hungarian Danube from number two spot? Oh yeah, yeah, and it replaces the Bed of Thyme 
in Spain, which was wonderful, but this is better. Yeah, Bed of Thyme One, we’ve had a Bed 
of Thyme in Spain already haven’t we,   but this one beats it by a long way. Oh god if only we could stop longer, listen to it. We really have stopped late 
I mean God I don’t know,   it’s gone 10 I think, or maybe it’s nearly 10. 10 to 10. 10 to 10! Normally done 
about 20 miles by now. Yeah, let’s go. Farewell second best wild camp so far. But we got our money’s worth. That’s right, yeah we didn’t rush 
away, we got our money’s worth. Two coffees, a breakfast, and a nice sit waiting   for the sun to come out which it 
did, which it did, which it did. Let’s go Debs. So it’s always a bit of a gamble when you while 
searching for a wild camp, you find somewhere   nice, I mean yesterday won’t a question it was a 
winner, but you’ll find somewhere and you think   “Oh should I stick here or should I keep going 
and look for somewhere else?” Stick or twist. And   you just don’t know because you don’t know what’s 
coming up, you’ve never been this road before, so   it’s always a bit of a gamble but, yesterday was 
a winner that’s for sure, and it left us feeling   very happy, yesterday, one of the best days we’ve 
had in 4 years, beautiful climb on a closed road,   lovely descent, friendly people, and a number two 
wild camp Debs, don’t come any better than that. No. Don’t come any better than that. Reinforces why we’re doing this, 
for special days like that. Not every day can be like that, we’ve had some 
tough ones but, that’s what we’re here for, days   like yesterday. So I wonder what today’s going to 
bring? We’re going to find out, that’s for sure. Yeah, cuz ever since that last wild camp it’s 
all been fenced off with electric wire like this. So had we not stopped at that 
winner we’d have been scuppered. No wonder the road’s closed, it’s buggered, 
it’s all right on a bike just about. Yeah, and we’ve done about a mile, we haven’t 
seen anywhere suitable for a camp yet. That’s just a wheat field so we won’t 
camp on crops like. That’s fenced off,   it looks like a nice meadow but fenced 
off. So I reckon we did the right thing. Let’s keep going. 2 miles up the road still nothing ideal, we 
might have been able to make do with that,   on the edge of the field, nice view 
but not as good as what we had Debs? No. So, but you just got to keep looking, 
something always turns up, keep the faith. We’ve been searching sometimes a 
couple of hours haven’t we Debs and   we think “Oh god we’re never going to find 
anywhere” but something always turns up,   you just got to keep the faith, 
the fickle finger will provide. Absolutely, and Thomas, he’s good guy. I got 
a nose for it I have, I can sniff them out. I saw a guy yesterday with what looked 
like a bunch of red roses, I’m thinking   where the hell has he got red roses from in a 
woodland, and I’ve just found out what it is. Peonies. Can you see that? 
Look at this bright red peony. Look at that, what a joy that is. Fantastic, and I’ve seen the 
leaves to what I thought was   peony all by the side of the road 
and obviously they’re just coming   into flower now so what a treat this 
woodland’s been, absolutely genius. Thank goodness we didn’t listen to 
Komoot and not come this way Debs? And we must be coming into peony territory 
cuz there’s a load here, look at this clump. Fantastic, and look at these oak trees,   I don’t know what that oak is but 
it’s certainly not English oak. There we go, the end of yet another off-road 
adventure. Back on track, back on tarmac. We’re on the map and it’s sending us to our picked 
up from here,and it’s sending us back to our road. Still a hell of a lot of trash here. Yeah. 
Mad. I don’t know why you do it. Yeah. I guess if you’re born and brought up here you 
might not think it’s particularly special but,   you still shouldn’t leave all your rubbish, 
especially plastic, but there you go. Look at this road now. Woohoo. Well chicken and chips in the roadside 
service station. How is it Debs? It’s really good, nice and moist, stuffed 
with something, not sure what yet but,   obviously I’m normally a vegetarian and 
travelling you’ve got to go with what’s available. So when I was looking online at the, for 
info on the Founders of the Bulgarian State   monument, I came across two cracking 
websites monumentalism.net I think, and   exutopia, which if you’re interested in all this 
socialist art, yeah really cracking websites,   and they had on them this shepherd in 
this little town maybe even village of   Zimnitsa I think they call it, and here 
he is, he wasn’t even on Google Maps so   I had a right job finding him I had to search 
Street View, but look at that, what a beauty. With his sheep dog. And that must be, I would imagine, 
Zimnitsa, but I’m only guessing. And there’s a new one. Fancy that. Can’t really   stop to get a picture of that 
cuz it’s behind the barriers. Coming up there folks is the Turkish border, 
which means our time in Bulgaria has come to an   end. Hope you’ve enjoyed watching that, especially 
that Shumen monument, wow, what a thing that was. Yep, goodbye Bulgaria, and also 
goodbye Europe cuz when we get   into Turkey we’ll be getting in 
towards Asia whole new continent,   which means we’ve cycled from 
Northampton to Turkey Debs. Hey. Ha ha.